A Thousand Paper
by InZanity R
Summary: How far will you go to save someone? From all possible means exhausted, are you willing to do anything just for someone you hold dear? Are you willing to believe an unproven myth, just to save the one you love?


**_"_** ** _How long has she been in there?"_**

 ** _"_** ** _Weeks. At least she doesn't forget to eat, sleep or do her daily necessities."_**

 ** _"_** ** _And she's been doing-"_**

 ** _"_** ** _That. Yes." Silence. "So, would you like to have some tea? I doubt she'll leave her room again." Shuffles._**

 ** _I can hear them talk. From the other side of the door, beside me, or behind me. I can read their messages from the parchments, or listed to the howlers. But none can stop me from what I'm doing._**

 ** _"_** ** _One… Two… Three… Four hundred." I counted. "Only six hundred more." My eyes looked at the picture beside me and bitterly smiled. The memories flowed once again and I braced myself._**

* * *

"No matter how you put it, your English is better now." She told me with that snarky grin of hers.

I shook my head and waved my hand. A new pot of tea appeared on the table in between us and I poured some on her empty teacup. "'Zen I would like to 'zank you for that. 'Zoug' I could live by perfectly even if I don't 'ave my accent."

"I find your accent sweet you know. Cute even." She said, sipping her tea. "If you lose it, I would really miss it. Sad as well."

"A'! Does 'zat mean you like me already? Is my c'arms already working?" I jested, wriggling my brows as I drink my tea.

"Mmm… Perhaps? Keep it up and maybe I would like you." She grinned at me and winked. It made my heart race.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Five hundred. Five hundred and I'm halfway there. Only a few more." I whispered, taking another sheet of colored paper._**

 ** _My fingers, cuts and blemishes decorated it, once again will endure another folding._**

 ** _"Five hundred more. Five hundred just for a wish." I mumbled like a mantra._**

* * *

A year after my divorce with my husband, and dating her for a year, she finally said yes and became my girlfriend. Sure a lot of our relatives and friends protested, how immoral it is or how unusual it is. But After telling them she's my mate, they finally zipped it and accepted us.

"My love, where are we going?" She asked, a bit of fear in her voice. She's currently blindfolded as I guided her along the wide plains.

I chuckled at her loss of courage. For someone who once belong to a house known for courage, hers is faltering. "Trust me my dear. I would not let anyt'ing 'appen to you."

She nodded her head. "I know I can trust you. If you broke that trust, you will have a flock of birds follow you and peck you." She threatened me. Oh how I shivered at the thought of it. My dear is a wiz in magic.

I lead her to the top of the hill we are climbing carefully and let her stand at the spot I want her to be standing on. I silently counted to three and slowly removed the blindfold.

"You better have a good-"

I grinned at the moment she stopped what she was going to lecture me about. "Like it?" I asked, spreading my arms to show the whole night view of the fields and sky.

She was speechless. Instead of verbally answering me, she turned around, facing me, and pulled me into a deep kiss. After the searing kiss, my grin is still plastered on my face. "I take 'zat as a yes?"

"Oh don't be cocky. One date under the stars-"

I stopped her words by pulling her close to me and whispering in her ear, " _Joyeux anniversaire."_

Yes, tonight is the anniversary of the first time we met.

* * *

 ** _"Six hundred and fifty. A few more."_**

 ** _I remember how long it took us before we got married._**

 ** _It took us two years of dating as girlfriends, arguing, and a few wizard dueling, before we tied the knot. Of course I proposed. In a way that she won't expect it._**

 ** _How? Well I sang to her, the song is All of Me, and she said yes after my proposal._**

 ** _I can remember the vows we shared and the kiss we had as a newlywed._**

 ** _In sickness and in health. 'till death do us part._**

 ** _We both said those lines and meant it._**

 ** _"Seven hundred. Three hundred more and I can finally finish."_**

* * *

A new mission has been given to me in Cairo and I was reluctant to take it. Somehow I feel that I shouldn't do another curse breaking mission even if it means my promotion. Like instinct tells me to stay behind. But her persistence, wanting for me to succeed, pushed me to take it.

"It would do well on your credentials dear! I swear, in the queen's blood, that if you don't take it, you won't have any sex for a week."

Sneaky. That she is. "'Zat is unfair!"

"No, it's not. You're going to pass such opportunity!" She insisted.

" _Merde!_ If not for the fact 'zat I love you…" I paused when I saw her cat-like grin. "Ugh! you are insufferable! Alrig't I'll take it!"

* * *

 ** _:Finally eight hundred. Only two hundred more and I'm finish."_**

 ** _Tears filled my eyes, I made sure that the paper I'm holding would not get wet, and hoped that what I'm doing would not be in vain._**

 ** _I can't let it be in vain._**

 ** _I took another paper, a brown one, and instantly a memory filled my head._**

 ** _It broke me._**

* * *

I came back from the mission in Cairo, proud of my achievement. It took me three weeks but I finished it successfully and ready to share the story with my beloved. Only to fall to my knees upon arriving at our apartment. The one I'm expecting, the woman who prepare a warm yet disgusting meal for me which I love nonetheless, is not by the front door to welcome me. The woman whom I vowed my life to, was nowhere to be found in our home.

Only her redheaded friend whom I despise the most.

"W'ere is s'e?" I asked. I suddenly felt nervous when her friend looked at me, face as white as paper. He opened his lips, fidgeted, and looked anywhere but my eyes. "W'ere is s'e Ronald!?" I demanded.

He spoke, backing away in fear as I know that my mythical beast's feature was showing. My hair turning red, feathers filling my arms, and eyes slowing turning to red. "She's…"

"Tell me Ronald!"

"She's at Saint Mungos! A broom accident." Ron said, quivering in fear.

Broom accident? An accident with a broom and my beloved? No… "S'e doesn't ride a broom! Let alone be near one!" I told him that fact.

"It was a stray broom. Bewitched. She's dying…"

Blood left my system. If my skin is pale already, then I can assume I'm white as paper. "'ow did s'e get… Never mind. A doctor! W'o is treating 'er!?" I needed answers. To know that she's in capable hands and magic.

"All that we know. Seriously, we are doing our best-"

"Your best isn't enoug'!" I yelled and apparated to Saint Mungos to check on my heart.

* * *

 **"Nine hundred and thirty three."**

 **Only a few more folded paper and I can make the impossible, possible.**

 **Tears stained my cheeks.**

 **Both from despair and anticipation.**

 **This myth better be accurate.**

 **Or who ever rules the world shall face my wrath.**

* * *

There, I was lead to one of the private infirmaries where my wife is confined. I shakily entered the white room filled with familiar faces. The bespectacled friend, the wife of her glass-wearing friend, my ex-husband, and our airy friend.

I immediately asked for her condition, they answered that they are not sure, and I began to thrash and yell about how incompetent the doctors are.

"'Zis is a wizarding hospital! Heck an immortality stone is possible to us! But None of 'zem can 'elp my wife!?" I shouted in anger.

None of them answered me and both the wife of the boy who lived and the one they once called as 'Loony', approached me and hugged me.

I broke down instantly.

* * *

 **"Nine hundred and eighty."**

 **I looked at my work.**

 **"Twenty more my love."**

* * *

It has been five months and my wife still in a coma. Her wounds have healed but she refuses to wake. I have tried everything, anything just to make her open her eyes. From calling my family, to harassing the doctors. None worked. So with her in a deep slumber, every day, I visited her.

Read something for her.

Brought her flowers.

Talked to her about anything.

This has affected my life already.

I quit my job just to be by her side. I refused to talk to anyone and lashed out on those who tell me it is hopeless.

It is not hopeless.

"It is not…" I whispered.

"Yes it is not." Someone told me. I turned around and found Luna, looking as airy as ever.

"W'at? W'at did you say _mon amie_?"

"There is a way to heal her. But it is not proven. You might think I'm loony just like the rest if I tell you." Luna told me.

A spark of hope filled my heart. "Loony or not, I will try anything for her. W'at s'ould I do!?"

Luna walked around the bed of my beloved and pulled something form her coat pocket and presented it to me. I looked at it and cocked my head.

A paper crane sat on her open palm. I looked at her and she understood the question being formulated on my head.

"It is a myth from the eastern country. Learn to fold one. From one to a hundred, to a thousand. You need a thousand crane tied to a string. To be granted a wish or eternal good luck." She told me and placed the crane on top of the bed, near my beloved's left arm. "We all worry about you and her, and I hope this myth is true."

With that she left me alone, with my beloved and a single folded paper.

* * *

 ** _"A thousand! Finally a thousand!"_**

 ** _I lifted the string of cranes upward and looked at the array of colors._**

 ** _My eyes are filled with tears and I sobbed at how magnificent it look._**

 ** _Then I stopped my admiration over the folded paper and thought of my wish._**

 ** _"I wish… In exchange for this thousand cranes, for my wife to be healed and come back-"_**

 ** _The Muggle device, a phone as my beloved told me it was called, rang, interrupting my wish._**

 ** _I placed the bunch of paper origami on my table and answered the ringing device._**

 ** _"Oui? N-no…Is that… Please don't-!"_**

 ** _I did not let the caller finish what was being said and apparated to the hospital._**

 ** _To my beloved._**

 ** _To Hermione Jean Granger-Delacour._**


End file.
